— PHOTO: AP

RAGING PROTEST: Protesters jump over a pile of tyres after setting them on fire in anger over the killing of the Baloch tribal chief Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, in Karachi on Tuesday.

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan military said on Tuesday that security forces were about to begin negotiations with Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti to apprehend him when the cave in which the Jhamoori Watan Party leader was hiding collapsed due to a blast from inside, killing him and as yet unknown number of his supporters and seven Army officials who had gone inside.

With this, the military is trying to clear itself of Nawab Bugti's killing. It also endeavours to set at rest rumours, fuelled by the delay in finding his body, that the Baloch leader was not inside the cave but killed by security forces in an open encounter.

Major General Shaukat Sultan, Director-General, Inter-Service Public Relations, said a tribal guide had first confirmed the presence of Nawab Bugti in the cave. After the guide came out, a colonel, four other officers, and two others went into the cave to negotiate with the leader and "to apprehend him alive." At that moment a blast led to the collapse of the cave, burying the military officers.

No chance of survival

Maj. Gen. Sultan said there was no chance that anyone inside had escaped the blast. The bodies of the officers could be pulled out because they lay at the mouth of the cave. Army engineers could take up to four or five days to retrieve the body of Nawab Bugti. They had advised against using explosives or heavy machinery to remove the rubble, as the whole area was unstable.

Security forces had recovered Rs. 10 crore and $96,000, rocket launchers, AK-47 rifles, ammunition and satellite phones from the rubble, said Maj. Gen. Sultan, who is also President Pervez Musharraf's press secretary.

The cave had come to the notice of the security forces when military helicopters came under fire in the area. He said it was untrue that the Army had killed Nawab Bugti.

Maj. Gen. Sultan played down the violence in Balochistan as "sporadic" and instigated by "vested interests" and said the situation was under control and would soon return to normal.

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